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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS H. BOLLS, OF VASIIINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

RElN-HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 411,639, dated September 24, 1889.

Application filed June '7, 1889. $erial No. 313A65. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS H. BOLLS, a citizen of the United States, residing at VVashington, in the District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rein-Holders and Checks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of this device, showing reins in it. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a portion of a carriage-wheel with this device attached as in use; Fig. 3, a detail showing the buckle detached. Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the buckle.

This device belongs to that class known as rein-h olders and the object of the invention is not only to provide means for holding the reins when the team is standing, but to so hold them that in case the horse starts from fright or any unusual cause the holder will be made to act as a stop or check upon him; and the novelty consists in the construction and combination of the several parts, all as will be hereinafter more fully set forth, and explained as well as embodied in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, A denotes a short piece of leather or any suitable material, to one end or side of which is suitably secured the metal piece B, which, for convenience in description, I shall call a buckle, and to the other end is secured a metal ring or locking device 0. The, leather can be secured to one side of the buckle, or there may be, as now shown, at one side a slot (1 for the leather to pass through. The buckle proper consists of a piece of wire of a fiattened U shape or rectangular, and having its top partly cut away, as shown in the draw in gs, and centrally the double tongue or clamp cl, pivoted to it by the pintle or headed bolt 6, which passes through it from side to side, so that it is pivoted edgewise in said rectangular piece. When thus in place in the U- shaped or rectangular wire, its length will coincide with the cut-away part of the wire, and as it thus stands edgewise it is free to revolve and there is left between its ends and the sides of the U-shaped piece a slight space sufficiently large to place on each side of it the two parts of the reins, as is indicated in the drawings. here the rectangular piece is slotted at (1, as now shown, the space between its inner wall and the tongue is about the same as that between the other end of the part B and the tongue; but if there is no slot then there will be allowed a space between the leather A and the tongue that is practically the same as atthe other end.

To adapt the device for use, the leather is placed about the front edge of the wheel as the driver jumps out of the carriage and the buckle passed through the ring. The reins are then applied, as above stated, in the buckle. Thus, if the horse should be startled and set off to run the reins would, as the wheels moved, impinge upon the tongue and be jammed hard and fast in the buckle, and thus cause such a pressure on the bit as to stop the horse.

It is obvious that the harder the horse tried to run the greater the pressure would be upon the tongue in the buckle and the firmer the reins would be held by the buckle.

In the detail of structure I do not wish to be confined to exactly what I have now represented in the drawings, for I propose to use any easy and suitable means for clasping or securing the leather to the wheel-such as a snap-hook, for instance. Likewise in the buckle it is only necessary to have the swiveled or revolving tongue so adapted within a holder that the reins passed about it shall, when the carriage-wheel is turned round, be caused to be held hard and fast between the buckle and its frame or support, now represented by the U-shaped piece B.

This device can be very cheaply made and is very easily applied to use, and is a very excellent means for holding the reins so that they cannot fall into the dirt or be dislodged, and at the same time the device is a sure means for checking the horse, and thus preventing his running away when attached to a carriage.

Having now described my invention, what I claim is-- 1. A rein-buckle having a portion of one of its side bars cut away and having a pintle pro 3. A rein-buckle having a portion of one of its side bars cut away and having a pintle .projecting from the inner portion of the opposite side bar, and a double tongue or clamp pivoted to said pintle, and combined with means for attaching it to a vehicle, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I affiX my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

THOMAS H. BOLLS.

Witn esses OAssELL SEVERANCE, PHILIP MAURO. 

